Some works of Frederick Hollyer

KEATS (JOHN)
Portrait of Keats by Frederick Hollyer after Joseph Severn,
hand-finished platinotype print, laid down and tipped-in on a window mount; sold with with the backing paper from the original frame, with printed label reading 'Colour Print by Fredk. Hollyer/ 9 Pembroke Square, Kensington, W.', and completed in ink "Keats/ Severn/ No. 12. Fred Hollyer" (inscription faded), also with label of Foster Brothers, 4 Park Sq., Boston and a facsimile of a manuscript label by Walter Severn, 226 x 173mm.,
[c.1906]
Footnotes
AN UNRECORDED HOLLYER PORTRAIT OF KEATS, FROM A LOST SEVERN OIL PAINTING.
"A series of colored reproductions of the Old Masters by a photo-graphic process without screens on excellent paper. These prints surpass the Arundel Society chromo-lithographs in softness of color and accuracy of representation... The series may be seen at Foster Brothers, 4 Park Sq., Boston" (Etheldred Abbot,
List of photograph dealers, with index by countries, and descriptive notes on collections of photographs in some Massachusetts libraries and museums
, 1907).
Hollyer's photographic print appears to be taken from the last and only full-size portrait of Keats painted by Severn, in 1877. That oil was sold by Vincent Eyre to John Field, an American friend of Severn. It was reproduced on the title-page of William Sharp's
Life of Joseph Severn
(1892), and illustrated in Donald Parsons's
Portraits of Keats
(1954), by which time its whereabouts was unknown. Hollyer's print differs from these in that the neckcloth has been coloured blue.
Provenance: Foster Brothers, Boston, label; George C. Seybolt (1915-1993), President of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and collector of portraits; his widow Hortense Kelley Seybolt; and then via an institution to the current owner.

Frederick Hollyer (1838-1933) Crudelitas and Saevitia leading the Faire Dame.Platinotype, or platinum print 17.5 x 34.5cm (1034 x 131/2in) After the pencil study of three female heads by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, for a painting on the theme of The Vision of Britomart in the Castle of Busirane, taken from Spenser's 'Faery Queen'.

Frederick Hollyer (1838-1933)
The Garden of Idleness, Courtesie and Fraunchise,
Platinum print,
After the drawing by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones
Circa
1874
395 x 390mm. (15 1/2 x 15 3/8 in)
Frederick Hollyer was from a family of engravers, but developed an interest in photography in the 1860s. His preferred process was the 'platinotype', or platinum print, for its rich tonal range. He collaborated closely with several artists in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, most notably Burne-Jones, Frederick Lord Leighton, and George Frederic Watts, and was considered to have been as important in promoting their work visually as Ruskin had been in writing, even prompting the artists themselves to re-evaluate their work, thereby recording early states that would otherwise be unknown to us.

Lot 257: Frederick Hollyer (1838-1933) - Fighting cats restrained by two naked children in an Italianate landscape,
Description:
platinotype, or platinum print, after a charcoal drawing by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, the original inscribed lower left EB-J: to Q: 1889: , on contemporary blue card support bearing Hollyer's copyright inkstamp verso, 245 x 330mm (9 5/8 x 13 in). Frederick Hollyer was from a family of engravers, but developed an interest in photography in the 1860s. His preferred process was the 'platinotype', or platinum print, for the rich tonal range it could convey. He collaborated closely with several artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, most notably Burne-Jones, Frederick Lord Leighton, and George Frederic Watts, and was considered to have been as important in promoting their work visually as Ruskin had been through his writing, even prompting the artists themselves to re-evaluate a work, and thereby recording early states that would otherwise be unknown to us.

179. Frederick Hollyer (1838-1933)
A group of Pre-raphaelite prints
after Burne-Jones's Perseus series, John Everett Millais's The Knight Errant, Harry Bates's Cupid and Psyche, and others, 8 platinotypes, 3 with studio stamps on verso, 2 with extensive early biblical verse inscriptions verso and at edges of recto, c.1880, v.s., 160 x 165mm. (6 1/4 x 6 1/2 in) to 280 x 200mm. (11 x 8 in), unframed (8)
Frederick Hollyer was from a family of engravers, but developed an interest in photography in the 1860s. His preferred process was the 'platinotype', or platinum print, for the rich tonal range it could convey. He collaborated closely with several artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, most notably Frederick Lord Leighton, Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts, and was considered to have been as important in promoting their work visually as Ruskin had been through his writing, even prompting the artists themselves to re-evaluate a work, and thereby recording early states that would otherwise be unknown to us.